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Chocolate chip cookies

After almost 20 years of baking various chocolate chip cookie recipes, I’m pleased to announce that the search for a perfect formula is done. I’ve found it and I never, ever will stray from it. Thank you internet, thank you Twitter, thank you food blogs.

I’d about given up on baking cookies, except for at Christmas. While my affection for a chocolate chip cookie borders on psychotic, I’d never been able to make a truly stellar batch. To me, a good chocolate chip cookie is crisp on the edges, and gooey in the middle, a bit sweet and a bit salty, the perfect foil for a steaming cup of coffee. Yet whenever I tried making them they came out flat, or all puffy and cake-y. Often, the dough tasted better than the finished product.

Then a few weeks ago a tweet caught my eye about recipes that took off because of the internet, or something to that effect, and because procrastination is my middle name, I clicked. There, buried between tomato sauce with butter and onion and kale chips, I spied what is supposedly the best chocolate chip recipe ever, according to the New York Times. Time stopped at that moment. Angels might have started singing. I had a list of home improvement projects and friends I hadn’t seen in weeks, but I knew that weekend I would devote myself to making these cookies.

Fortunately, the recipe for these is super simple, especially when weighing your ingredients on a scale as opposed to measuring in cups. I had time not only to make cookies, but to finish painting my foyer, try Area Four (not a fan), make a pork roast and do several loads of laundry that weekend. And the cookies? O-M-G. They were everything you want in a cookie. Even my sister, who’s sweet tooth is almost non-existent, ate three of them.

The premise of the NY Times version of this cookie is that you have to let the dough rest before baking it. While I did that with half the batch and found it made a mighty fine cookie, the half that got cooked right away were nothing to scoff at. Also, this recipe calls for chocolate discs, but as I’d just invested in some Guittard chips, I decided to go with them, and they seemed perfectly suited. Lastly, I kept forgetting to sprinkle salt over the cookies before I baked them, but the ones with salt were definitely better. So try not to forget, OK?

I also took a tip from Orangette and scooped the dough into cookie-sized balls before refrigerating it. Much easier. Also, it enabled me to have a plate of ready-to-bake cookies in the fridge all week. Friends coming over? No one wants to eat three-day-old cookies. Instead, pop a few in the oven 20 minutes before guests arrive. They will think you’re a saint. And your house will smell great.

Make these cookies. You belly will thank you. Your loved ones will thank you. The internet will probably thank you too.

Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a medium-sized bowl and set aside.
Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars together until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. Reduce speed to low, and add dry ingredients a little at a time, mixing until just combined.

Remove paddle attachment and add chocolate chips. Stir in with a wooden spoon (by this time the dough is likely too stiff for the paddle). Use an ice cream scoop to create balls of dough about 3 ounces each. Place on a plate or tray, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate over night. Dough can be used in batches, and can be refrigerated for up to 4 days.

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and put dough balls on the pan (8 cookies on a standard-sized cookie sheet is about right). Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and bake until golden brown but still soft, 15 to 18 minutes. Let cook a few minutes in the pan before transferring to a wire rack.

OK my girls deemed these the “BEST” Dave is not a fan of the salt! I froze 1/2 the batch scooped into balls so we can have them quickly. When I did some without salt the girls wanted me to not to do that again.